Applaud the Hollow Ghost - Hardcover

Walker, David J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312180411 ISBN 13: 9780312180416

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1998

Synopsis

Mal Foley finds himself involved with an assault case involving an old high school classmate, and even though the case against his friend is slim, he finds himself up against the Chicago mob

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

Back in St. Robert's High, Malachy Foley didn't lift a finger to stop the tormentors who were ridiculing lumpish Lambert Fleming. Now that Lammy's grown to lumbering, inarticulate adulthood, Mal tries to assuage his guilt by putting up the $40,000 for Lammy's bail bond when he's accused of assaulting his eight-year-old neighbor, Patricia Connolly. Of course, Mal's making only the first payment on his debt to Lammy; to pay in full, he'll have to dig up the evidence that'll set Lammy free from a legal system, a Chicago public, and an outraged father baying for his blood. It seems like a simple, if sordid, case: The child is either confused, or (as seems increasingly likely) lying to cover up for somebody closer to her than Lammy. But once a mutilated dog's corpse and a more direct attack on Lammy send Mal on the offensive, he finds himself sliding into a cesspool of felonies. An old-time hoodlum obviously has it in for Lammy; the FBI seems to be concealing the involvement of Mal's favorite suspect; the few people willing to talk to Mal go into steep declines; and in short order, Mal, on the run from the cops for killing a priest, is in much worse trouble than his client. Mal's third (Half the Truth, 1996, etc.) does a manful job of tacking between fisticuffs and sensitive stuff, though violence will win out, in an operatic finale, before all the perps are finally brought to book. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly

In his third case (after Half the Truth, 1996), Evanston, Ill., piano-playing PI Mal Foley is urged by his patron, whom he has nicknamed "the Lady," to look into a case of child molestation. Foley remembers the accused, Lambert Fleming, from 20 years earlier on a basketball court when Lammy had been humiliated by his peers and his eyes had appealed to Foley for help. To make up for turning his back then, Foley agrees to help him now. But finding out who molested the little girl turns out to be a harder and more dangerous task than he anticipated. First, the girl's father won't allow her to be interviewed; then Lammy's dog is castrated and he himself is beaten. The investigation goes from bad to worse as Foley discovers the little girl is linked to a powerful crime family. Not until the girl's grandmother agrees to step in to help her grandchild does Foley's job take a turn for the better. An extended and twisting climax stretches credibility, but otherwise Walker sets questions of morality in a believable context.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0312180411
• ISBN 13: 9780312180416
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 273